Bad Religion and Love Crimes preformed at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater on April 12, 2024. Social Distortion was also on the bill, but due to last minute restrictions, we were unable to cover their performance.
I hadn’t heard of Love Crimes before the show, and it’s not easy to find information on them. I did find out that the lead vocalist and guitarist is Julian Ness, the son of Mike Ness of Social Distortion. They were a great, fun band with a definite Social Distortion influence.
Bad Religion has been one of my favorite bands since the early 1990s.
I saw them several times at the iconic Iguana’s in Tijuana. It was the first time I experienced a boot to the head from a balcony diver and I loved the chaos. I was/am a metalhead, loving long hair, dressed in spiked leather, party bands, and Bad Religion was none of that. They are clean cut punk rock scholars. I recently listened to lead singer Greg Graffin’s book Punk Paradox on Audible. As long as I’ve been listening to Bad Religion, I realized I didn’t know much of their story. I’m always excited to see their show, but knowing how they started and the challenges they faced gave me a whole new appreciation for the band and especially Greg. It’s a pretty amazing story that he started this band in his teens, kept it going all these years, earning his PhD, his research projects, and being a professor at Cornell and UCLA. My Audible plug, he narrates it himself, so it’s more fun than reading it. Anyway, back to the show…
I noticed their banner was different with just the band name Bad Religion and not their symbol of the cross crossed out. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I love the statement of the crossed out cross. Another thing I love about Bad Religion is you’re going to get a different setlist every time, even on the same tour. With seventeen studio albums, they have quite a catalogue to choose from, but there’s a few songs that stay consistent on the setlist, “ 21st Century (Digital Boy)”, “I Want to Conquer the World”, “Fuck You”, and “American Jesus”. It’s fun to be surprised, like back in the day, when we couldn’t look up a setlist on the internet.
Greg Graffin said,"I'd like to thank each and everyone of you." He point out to the crowd and said, "We'll start over here." He went on to add, "we're having so much fun, that we'll do this every Friday! Talk to you're congressman, that everyday is Bad Religion day!"
Bad Religion has two more California shows before heading off to Europe for the summer.
6/6 Garden AMP in Garden Grove, CA
6/8 No Values Festival in Pomona, CA
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